Valid point, but (perhaps a stupid question here) if this supposed new, greener car is already produced and on the lot am I really “asking that a new car be produced” ? It’s already there, so it’s not like I’m ordering it direct from the manufacturer or anything. Theoretically, I’m just purchasing it from the dealer,…

Valid points, all. I appreciate the input. I think I’ll go get a new bike lock and clean my chain instead!

True. Right now, that basically *is* my substitute for driving a hybrid: substituting short car trips with bicycle trips and taking public transit for my work commute. Less convenient in some ways, but very rewarding in other ways. And a hellllll of a lot cheaper than buying a car, used or new.

Shoot, I get so sick of being “practical” and “responsible” too. Can’t I just trade in my reliable, 9 year-old Japanese sedan and get something unreliable, impractical, and fun?!

What if I want to reduce my carbon footprint i/e pollute less than I currently do? As you wrote, the financial benefit of using less gas may be minimal or negligible in some cases. However, upgrading to a newer car may have the effect of putting significantly less CO2 into the atmosphere.

The transition from fossil fuels to renewable, clean energy is not something that we can do overnight unfortunately. Even so, there is value in taking incremental steps (nat. gas, nuclear) to move to less carbon-intensive fuels even if we cannot get to 100% clean in one swoop. It took decades to get to the…

Based on much of the research done thus far, even EVs powered by coal/natural gas are cleaner and less carbon-itensive than their ICE-counterparts. And as the power grid gets cleaner, which it does over time, the car gets cleaner.

Plus, there’s all the additional infrastructure necessary to build to make hydrogen cars mainstream. Yes, you would have to build new infrastructure for EVs, but we’re already in the process of doing that, plus its easier and cheaper to build charging stations at peoples’ houses which is how most people charge their…

I don’t care, I *like* the Renegade. On this truck, I love everything except the fabric top.

The Fiat is actually the only one of these that has any real appeal to me. If I ever got one, I would go for the manual version because: A) it’s cheaper, B) apparently possesses better fuel economy than the automatic and C) no wonky 9-speed transmission that I keep hearing about from all the auto journalists.

Thanks for being brave enough to share your story.

THIS.

She’s a beauty, but not for that price.

Cool, I’m considering getting a used one myself. I’m guessing you’re happy with its overall reliability so far?

At the moment this seems to be, at the very least, up for debate. There are other sources which claim that even in states that get a higher % of power from coal or natural gas, an EV is still cleaner than an efficient ICE.

Just curious, which EV do you drive?

See, I was wondering about the visibility. That sounds like the one downside out of all the accolades I keep hearing about the Volt. Of course, my Nissan Altima seems to have thick pillars, so if they aren’t worse that on a Volt it might be fine.

I’m seriously considering a used Volt as a daily driver sometime in the near future. They are going for great prices considering their overall low mileage (even when cross-shopped with other similar ICE models).

On that note, if anyone is interested, there is some research available that delves into the overall merits of electric grid based-driving vs. standard ICE gas-based driving. Here’s a handful of links on the topic (TLDR version: generally EVs and hybrids contribute significantly less CO2 than ICEs even when the grid…

It is very true that we can believe what we wish to believe, but the pdegraff link you posted leaves many questions and contains no links, sources or references to back up the many claims it makes to the destructiveness of hybrid batteries. Also, on the main page, it’s recommended websites include links to…